Constantly underperforms and just gets lucky with a goal here and there? So in your book, what is actually considered not a lucky goal? Dude, tap in goals are inevitable for a centre forward. Do you expect Lukaku to only score 40 yard screamers or solo run from his own penalty box dribbling past 9 opposition players before nutmegging the GK to consider his goals legit?
And tell me what is your definition of underperforming for a centre forward? You expect whenever Lukaku touches the ball, it MUST result in a goal don't you? Well, if that's the case, he won't be playing for Inter. That kind of superhuman specimen of a striker would play for fucking Barcelona or Real Madrid, if there is ever any existed.
You ask me why I like to bring up Icardi into the discussion? Simply because your standard of evaluating a centre forward is blatantly biased and inconsistent as fuck, with the sole purpose of suiting your own agenda. You shit on Lukaku's tap in goals as lucky goals, but if it was Icardi surely you'd say world class positioning and immense predatory instinct.
I am no Lukaku fanboy. I just give credit where it's due. I cherish Lukaku's goals and contributions to the team, just like I cherished Icardi's goals and contributions when he was here. I celebrated Icardi's goals like crazy in so many occasions. His goals gave me joy and goosebumps. I didn't act like an obnoxious hater when Icardi scored for Inter, saying stupid shit like "LOL. Lucky. Troll goal." or "LOL another troll lucky ass goal by a half football player" although he scored shit load of tap ins during his time here as well.
It's obvious that you just don't like Lukaku playing for Inter.
Nope I do not expect him to score all the time. But he wants to score all the time because it's the only way to hide the fact that he is more of a problem on the team than an asset.
He is very wasteful. That's okay to an extent. You cannot expect a goal all the time.
He misplaces the ball almost exclusively. It's as if you know that he's going to give a bad pass. And that becomes a problem when the tactic is to give him the ball all the fucking time. Not Lukaku's fault that Conte is obsessed with him, but let's not pretend that this is something that adds value to the team. And yes, if he keeps missing the ball, leading to counters, forcing teammates to change direction because of a bad pass and losing possession, I can safely say that this is not a good contribution to the team. I'd rather he sat on the offside line and wait for a run, then maybe he wouldn't have been such a problematic player.
He's a bad teammate. He complains all the time for no reason. Dude even complained to Ranocchia for not properly reaching a header (for a goal) because he didn't try to divert it towards him... That's some unreasonable and unrealistic expectations from teammates that do not engage him whenever he's being an asshole towards them. Wouldn't surprise me if someone tells him to fuck off and it leads to a locker room issue.
But honestly, how does he deserve more praise here than others?
He scored a tap in, missed a shitload of chances, was offside all the time and got to a tap in and a PK, and people are praising him as if he's Milito in the Champions League final. It's always the case.
This is toxic behavior. You cannot pamper a player with undeserving hype ALL THE FUCKING TIME. When Lukaku deserves praise, he shall receive it. By all. As things stand, the only thing that deserves praise is his crude stat sheet. But that impresses only people who do not watch the games. Having people in the match thread praise players that have done jack shit is borderline insanity and it has nothing to do with opinions.
And sure, I am not a huge fan of Lukaku being at Inter. Not because Lukaku is a bad fit or because he sucks or whatever else you may believe I think. The reason is that we could have done a different direction and have a team competing for the Scudetto and Champions League now but instead we are happy that we have a PK scorer that gets praised for tap ins despite messing up most of the game, which is crazy to see how someone else was considered useless by pretty much the same group of people for allegedly doing the same!
And I do stand by my position that our best attacking duo is Lautaro & Alexis. There's constant movement, there's a higher level of skill and it provides us with higher quality chances. Against any opposition... Which is the most important thing. Especially top teams.
This stil doesn't mean that I'll diss Lukaku if he doesn't deserve it. I praise him when he deserves it. If he played every game like he did vs Leverkusen, I wouldn't be saying shit. I'd also be saying he was doing some carrying and all that. But that was a one off it seems.
